# NY AG Letitia James drops the (civil) hammer {On Trump & Family} \[9/21/2022\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 21, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991 "2022-09-21T16:13:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1875
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/1875 "2024-01-14T20:47:06Z")
You might also want to check out this thread from the time the trial started, discussing the nature of the civil proceedings: > [@The Trump civil trial](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-civil-trial/991167): > > Isn’t fraud a crime? Why isn’t this a criminal case? Who is the plaintiff? If New York State is the plaintiff, does that mean that NYS suffered a financial loss as a result of Trump’s fraud? If Trump is ordered to pay $100m, who gets the money? A point of confusion seems to be that some people think either there is a criminal trial for fraud, or a civil suit brought by the victim; nothing in between. The law in this case is something different: it’s based on the assumption that dishonest business practices harm the community, even if it doesn’t amount to a criminal offence. Therefore a public civil action has been created by the statute, to give the AG NY the power to bring an action to correct the improper business practices. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991)._